Amazon, Flipkart And Snapdeal Battle It Out As Festive Season Sales Begin

As the festive season gets into high gear, the three e-commerce players - Amazon, Flipkart and Snapdeal - have kicked off their sales hoping to get consumers to open up their wallets.

Amazon started its Great Indian Festival sale on Saturday, while Flipkart (The Big Billion Day) and Snapdeal (Unbox Diwali Sale) launched their sales today.

Amazon- Great Indian Festival

Amazon focused on pushing sales of gadgets and home appliances and fashion through its promotions on Sunday. The e-commerce player is selling the Xiaomi Redmi Note 3 at an eight percent discount and has priced the device at Rs 10,999, while the Moto G Turbo is being sold at a 20 percent discount and is priced at Rs 9,999. The Micromax Canvas 6 Pro is available on the site for an even steeper discount of 33 percent, priced at Rs 9,999.

The discounts on washing machines were in the range of 7-33 percent with the Intex semi-automatic top-loading washing machine being priced at Rs 5,990 post a 33 percent discount.

In the fashion segment, Amazon is offering a 40-80 percent discount.

Amazon’s sales jumped three times compared to Diwali sales last year, the company said in an e-mailed statement.

Compared to its regular business, Amazon’s sales were up six times driven by five times increase in new customers from Tier II and Tier III cities. Consumer electronics, mobiles and fashion continue to be top categories, Amazon added.

Amazon Fashion saw its sales increase by seven times largely on the back of kids wear, apparel and accessories. In the kids fashion segment, Chota Bheem products saw the most traction as its sales were up 68 times.

Flipkart- The Big Billion Days

Flipkart is also pushing home appliances and electronics through its sales but is also focused on fashion. The apparels segment, in particular, has discounts as steep as 60 -70 percent being offered.

In an email statement, Flipkart said it sold over half a million products in the first ten mintues of the sale going live - making it the highest ever in the company’s history.

The statement further added that Myntra, its fashion e-commerce website, also clocked three times the revenue in the first hour when compared to the 2015 edition of Big Billion Days.

Snapdeal-Unbox Diwali Sale

Like the other two, Snapdeal is focused on offering discounts on mobile phones, home appliances and personal electronics this year.

The website offered a 20 percent discount on the Micromax Canvas Spark 2, which is priced at Rs 3,799. In the home furnishings segment, a sofa-cum-bed is priced at Rs 11,299 after a 62 percent discount.

Snapdeal, in an earlier e-mail statement, said that two million users logged in during the first hour of sale and nearly 30,000 sellers have received orders in the first eight hours.The statement also said that 200 mobile are being sold per minute.

In an updated e-mail statement, Snapdeal said, it recorded its “highest ever sales by both volume and value on any single day on Day 1 of the Unbox Diwali Sale, establishing a new record for itself. ”

The e-commerce major witnessed its sales volumes surged nine times of average daily sales and said 80 percent of its orders was from mobile platforms.

Snapdeal had earlier said it sold 5,000 flat screen television in the first sixteen hours of its sales and LG, Samsung, Sony and Micromax accounted for most its sales.